Adventures in Baseball Archeology: the Negro Leagues, Latin American baseball, J-ball, the minors, the 19th century, and other hidden, overlooked, or unknown corners of baseball history...with occasional forays into other sports.

dobie moore

June 29, 2016

I’ve written quite a bit about tracking down the death of Kansas City Monarchs shortstop Dobie Moore; here’s something about his life, an anecdote from 1925 I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use yet. It puts at least a little flesh on the factual bones of Moore’s story.

January 29, 2016

It looks like we have reached a conclusion in the case of the Kansas City Monarchs’ great shortstop Walter “Dobie” Moore, whose career ended when he was shot in the leg in 1926. I summarized the current state of affairs back in 2014, so I won’t go over all the evidence again. Suffice it to say that everything about Walter Moore of Detroit, who was born on February 8, 1895 or 1896, in Atlanta, Georgia, and died in Detroit on August 20, 1947, matched what we knew about Dobie Moore. We were almost, almost positive that we had found him.

There were just two problems. First, we were able to find two reported sightings of Dobie Moore well after August 20, 1947. Second, while both Walter and Dobie had younger brothers who were also ballplayers, Dobie’s brother was named Pete Moore, while Walter’s was called Allen Moore. Were the sightings of Dobie mistaken? And were Pete and Allen the same person?

It would be nearly impossible to find a definitive answer to the first question. However, Peter Morris has, I think, provided an answer to the second. Reading Bill Staples’s excellent book about Kenichi Zenimura, Peter realized that Bill’s research on a 1934 tour by the Detroit Colored Giants to the West Coast (where they played the Fresno All-Stars, featuring Zenimura, at the Fresno Japanese Ball Park) had provided what might be the final piece to the Dobie Moore puzzle. As it turns out, the Colored Giants’ shortstop was, throughout the 1934 season, referred to interchangeably as Peter Moore and Allen Moore.

Here’s a report from the Bismarck Tribune (May 15, 1934), previewing an upcoming game between the Detroit Colored Giants and the famous Bismarck independent team, the racially integrated club that featured Satchel Paige. Here the Colored Giants’ shortstop is called Peter Moore:

And here is a piece of local news from Gallup, New Mexico, printed in the Chicago Defender later in the year (July 14, 1934), as the Colored Giants edged closer to the coast, naming Allen Moore as the team’s shortstop:

Now we can plausibly answer yes, it appears that Pete Moore and Allen Moore were the same person. And now I’m also prepared to say that, yes, the two 1948 sightings of Dobie were almost certainly mistakes, one way or another, and that we’ve certainly identified Dobie Moore as the Walter Moore who died of a heart attack in Detroit in 1947, at the young age of 51 or 52.

This means, incidentally, that we know where Dobie Moore was buried: in Detroit Memorial Park East, located in Warren, Macomb County, Michigan. Back in 2014 Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press wrote an article about our efforts to track down Moore (now unfortunately behind a pay wall). In so doing, he contacted the cemetery and actually went out to see the grave where Dobie Moore now lies—beneath a tin marker inscribed with only a number (1768).

If you want to follow the whole research process that led to this outcome, check out these posts:

May 17, 2014

Here’s the latest on the search for Walter “Dobie” Moore, the great Kansas City Monarchs and Santa Clara Leopardos shortstop. In case you haven’t been keeping track, see this and this.

To sum up: Dobie Moore, born in Atlanta sometime around 1896 or 1897, was known to be living in Detroit in the 1930s, along with a brother named Pete Moore who was also a ballplayer. On September 11, 1943, the Chicago Defenderprinted a photo of him, identifying him as a resident of Detroit. Less than a year and a half earlier, in April 1942, an African American man named Walter Moore, born February 8, 1896, in Atlanta, Georgia, registered for the draft in Detroit.

This particular Walter Moore and his family can be identified in both the 1930 and 1940 census in Detroit. His younger brother Allen is listed as a professional ballplayer in the 1930 census. And this Walter Moore, as Peter Morris discovered, died of a heart attack at his home in Detroit on August 20, 1947.

Everything seems to fit: he was born in Atlanta, lived in Detroit at the right time, his younger brother was a ballplayer (even though the names differ—were Pete Moore and Allen Moore the same person?). According to his death certificate, Walter Moore moved to Detroit in 1926—the very year Dobie Moore was shot and his Negro league career ended.

The only problem is…Dobie Moore was reported to have been a pallbearer at his old teammate George Carr’s funeral in Los Angeles in January, 1948. Six months later, in June 1948, he was reported to have been robbed by “three thugs” on a Chicago street. So the last two sightings of Dobie Moore alive took place after Walter Moore of Detroit died on August 20, 1947.

These 1948 sightings of Dobie Moore could be mistakes. And the circumstantial evidence linking this Walter Moore to the Monarch shortstop is pretty convincing. But it would be great to get one solid link between this Walter and the ballplayer—something like a reference to Dobie’s younger brother Allen (rather than Pete), or anything giving the name of any of Dobie’s relatives, or a record or document that establishes Walter Moore of Detroit as a ballplayer himself.

To cut the suspense short: I think I’ve found a record that establishes a link between Dobie Moore the ballplayer and Walter Moore of Detroit. In the 1923/24 winter season, Dobie Moore starred for the greatest team in Cuban history, the Leopardos of Santa Clara. I’ve finally found a passenger list showing several of Santa Clara’s American players returning to the U.S., arriving at Key West aboard the steam packet Governor Cobb on March 17, 1924. (Click to enlarge.)

Moore is listed as born in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 6, 1897. This is very close, but not identical to, the February 8, 1895 or 1896 that records list for Walter Moore of Detroit. It’s worth noting that the other Negro league players on this passenger list are given birth dates that differ from other (generally quite reliable) records. From what I’ve seen, the passenger lists of this era are prone to errors and misreadings borne out of carelessness or haste, so such differences are not entirely surprising. So you can compare, here is the birth information for the other players from this list, compared with the birth information from other sources that I’ve used in the Seamheads DB:

With the exception of the always slippery Dave Brown, the birth dates are at least similar (in Marcell’s case June, or Jun., could easily be mistaken for Jan.). Alexandria is a small township less than 50 miles from Indianapolis, while Thibodaux is about 60 miles from New Orleans. It’s very common to find people giving their birth place as a larger town or city near their actual birth place, especially later in life. And it’s equally common to see specific dates move around a little from record to record.

What I’m saying is that I think the birth information on this passenger list is, if not absolutely correct in every detail, approximately accurate—and that I think we can take the February 6, 1897, birth in Atlanta for Dobie Moore as a definite link to Walter Moore of Detroit, born on February 8, 1895 or 1896, in Atlanta. The “circumstantial” case (as I’ve called it) that Peter has found Dobie Moore’s death date is getting very strong, in my opinion.

Credit belongs to John Bowman, who originally looked up Walter Moore’s World War II draft card; Peter Morris, who found Moore’s death record and tracked down his family; and Mark Aubrey, who pointed out that Moore’s brother Allen was listed as a ballplayer in 1930.

May 9, 2013

Here’s a copy of the actual death certificate for Walter Moore, whose death record was found by Peter Morris, and who might be the Kansas City Monarchs shortstop Dobie Moore:

The informant, “Mildred Toles,” seems likely to be Walter’s sister, Mildred, who married James Tate. In the 1940 census, the Tates, Walter Moore, and another sister, Anna King, lived at 1022 Alfred, the same address Walter gave on his WW2 draft card and that’s on his death certificate.

Most intriguing, though, is the information that Walter Moore had been “in this community” for 21 years. That puts his arrival in Detroit in 1926—the very year in which Dobie Moore was shot and his Negro league career ended.

In addition, Mark Aubrey has pointed out that Walter’s younger brother Allen is listed as a “Baseball Player” in the 1930 census:

Dobie Moore’s younger brother, Pete Moore, was a Detroit ballplayer, as late as 1941:

(Chicago Defender, May 31, 1941, p. 22)

There was also a Pete Moore playing for a team called the Black Mohawks of Bradford, Pa., in the late 1920s. Was this also Pete’s brother, and were Allen Moore and Pete Moore the same person?

If the Walter Moore we’re looking at was not Dobie Moore, it seems like quite a string of coincidences: 1) same name; 2) both were from Atlanta, and were the same age; 3) both were in Detroit in the 1930s and 1940s; 4) both had a younger brother who was also a ballplayer (I haven’t compiled the date, but there were not that many black men who listed their occupation as ballplayer in the 1930 census); 5) our Walter Moore arrived in Detroit in 1926, the same year in which Dobie Moore was forced to quit the Monarchs.

And if this Walter Moore isn’t Dobie, where’s Dobie? I haven’t found a trace of anyone else who could be him.

However: this Walter Moore died in Detroit on August 20, 1947. As I have noted, Dobie Moore was supposed to have been one of the pallbearers at George Carr’s funeral in Los Angeles in January, 1948. Not only that, but I found another sighting of Dobie Moore later that year, in Chicago:

(Chicago Defender, June 19, 1948, p. 10)

These 1948 sightings of Dobie Moore could be mistakes. And the circumstantial evidence linking this Walter Moore to the Monarch shortstop is pretty convincing. But it would be great to get one solid link between this Walter and the ballplayer—something like a reference to Dobie’s younger brother Allen (rather than Pete), or anything giving the name of any of Dobie’s relatives, or a record or document that establishes Walter Moore of Detroit as a ballplayer himself.

April 30, 2013

Peter Morris, author of Game of Inches and discoverer of William Edward White’s status as the first African American ballplayer in the major leagues, has a new blog—and in his very first entry floats a possible death date for the elusive Dobie Moore. Peter found a death record for Walter Moore, born February 8, 1895, in Atlanta, Georgia, which matches the February 8, 1896, birth date on the World War II draft card originally found by John Bowman. Given his parents’ names (Waddie Moore and Julia Drummond), Peter was able to trace this Walter Moore’s family back to Atlanta in the 1900 census, and forward to Detroit in 1930 and 1940—and, of course, Detroit was where Dobie settled after his Negro league career ended.

As he notes, there are a number of oddities here, including the evident fact that “Walter” Moore seems to be called “Lewis” in earlier census records. Dobie Moore had a brother, Pete, who played (presumably semipro) ball in Detroit in the 1930s, but there’s no Pete in the Moore family (could he be Allen, the brother who moved to Detroit?).

Probably the biggest issue is that this Walter Moore died on August 20, 1947. In January, 1948, Dobie Moore, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel, served as a pallbearer at his old teammate George Carr’s funeral in Los Angeles:

(Los Angeles Sentinel, January 29, 1948, p. 11)

It’s quite possible that the Sentinel was simply wrong. It’s also possible that the Walter Moore we’ve identified is the wrong person, too. At this point there’s not enough information to say for sure. If I had to bet, though, I would wager that Peter has finally found Dobie’s death date.

Anyway, I’ve ordered a copy of the actual death certificate, so we’ll see if that adds anything to what we know.

(By the way, here’s why all the other birth and death dates that have been given for Moore are almost certainly wrong.)

February 8, 2013

Here’s a bit of follow-up to some pretty old research: an actual image of Dobie Moore’s WW2 draft card, filled out in Detroit in April, 1942.

Interestingly, there is no mention of Moore's leg injury, although nearly a year and a half later he would appear in a Chicago Defender photo with a pair of crutches, pointing to the ankle where he was shot.

(Chicago Defender, September 11, 1943)

I still don’t know when or where he died; currently the last sighting I have of Moore is an appearance as pallbearer at George Carr’s funeral in Los Angeles in January, 1948 (the other pallbearers included two Hall of Famers, Biz Mackey and Jud Wilson).

So the date of birth matches the Walter Moore who served at Camp Stephen D. Little in 1920. No mention of a bad leg. Maybe the brace and the crutch in the 1943 photo were props related to the content of the newspaper article.

Dobie Moore lived just a few blocks from where Comerica Park is now. The buildings he and James Simmons lived in have been replaced by I-75.

It’s not 100 percent positive yet that this is Dobie Moore (a mention of the leg injury would have pretty much cinched it), but there’s a very, very good chance it is him. No luck yet finding a corresponding death date, but we’ll see. Many thanks to John for tracking this down.

UPDATE 10/26/2007 Here’s something from Larry Lester’s recent book on Baseball’s First Colored World Series: “In September 1923, the illiterate Moore married the former Francis Davis” (p. 83), I’m assuming in Kansas City. It seems like a good chance that his marriage license could be found, and that it might have a birth date (and place).

October 20, 2007

Dobie Moore’s Wikipedia entry gives the following dates for him: born January 9, 1895; died December 1, 1977, in Mableton, Georgia. The BR Bullpen is more hesitant: “An unconfirmed research note says that [Moore] died at age 82 (1977) in Mableton, Georgia.”

There is a Walter Moore in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) who’s listed as born January 9, 1895, died December 1977, in Mableton, Georgia. A look in the Georgia Deaths database at Ancestry.com reveals a Walter J. Moore who died on December 6, 1977, at age 82, in DeKalb County—but his last residence was in Cobb County (the site of Mableton). His race is recorded as “W.” He’s one of only two Walter Moores listed as passing away in Georgia in 1977 (the other was aged 58).

There is also a World War I draft card for a Walter James Moore, “Caucasian,” born January 9, 1895, in Chattahoochee, Georgia. Dobie Moore, of course, was already in the Army when the draft registration was first held in 1917, and would not have filled out a draft card.

In the addendum added for the 2001 edition of his Biographical Encyclopedia, James Riley has these dates for Moore: born February 27, 1890, Rome, Georgia; died April 1, 1963, Rome, Georgia.

The SSDI does have a Walter Moore, born February 27, 1890 (no place listed), died May 1978, Silver Creek, Georgia; Silver Creek is in Floyd County, the same county as Rome, Georgia. The Georgia Deaths DB has Walter O. Moore, white, died May 5, 1978, age 88, in Silver Creek, Georgia.

To sum up: I think the Walter Moore who died in Mableton, Georgia, in 1977 is assuredly not Dobie Moore the ballplayer. And the fact that a white man named Walter Moore was born on the exact same day (February 27, 1890) and in the same Georgia county that Riley’s addendum lists for Dobie is troubling, though I don’t know what to make of the totally different death dates.

We’re left with two pieces of evidence I know of: the Walter Moore found in the 1920 census at Camp Stephen D. Little in Nogales, Arizona, born in Georgia, age 24 (on the same page as Branch Russell and William Linder); and a photo and caption in the September 11, 1943, Chicago Defender—the latest mention I have found of Dobie Moore’s life:

I have found a couple of mentions in the late 1930s of a Pete Moore, supposed to be Dobie Moore’s younger brother, playing third base on Detroit semi-pro teams.

Since Moore was in Detroit in 1943, it’s almost certain that he registered there for the World War II draft (in the so-called “old man’s registration”); unfortunately the Michigan cards have not been microfilmed by the National Archives, and thus are not slated to be digitized by Ancestry.com or anybody else anytime soon. It might be possible, though, to locate his card in the National Archives’ Great Lakes Region headquarters in Chicago, where the Michigan draft cards are housed. If anybody living around there is reading this, you might want to think about checking it out if you have the chance.

UPDATE 10/21/2007 See this post for more on Moore, including the box score for his first appearance in the Negro National League, and this category for more information in general on the Army ballplayers that joined the Monarchs.

UPDATE 10/24/2007 If you haven’t seen it already, this post has the result of John Bowman’s trip to the National Archives facility in Chicago. He found a World War II draft card for an African-American man named Walter Moore living in Detroit, born in Atlanta on February 8, 1896. (Dobie Moore was known to have said himself he was born in Atlanta.) Also, as comments indicate, the Wikipedia and BR Bullpen entries have been updated.

UPDATE 10/24/2007 Also, I might not have been clear in the post above: the birthdate of January 9, 1895, is definitely in question, as it has been linked (via two sources) to a white man named Walter James Moore, the same man who passed away on December 6, 1977.

November 1, 2006

Today we pick up where we left off yesterday, but tack in a slightly different direction.

It turns out that on June 28, 1920, just days before Bullet Rogan and Dobie Moore, veterans of the 25th Infantry “Wreckers” baseball team, debuted with the Kansas City Monarchs in St. Louis, the St. Louis Giants played a game against—the 25th Infantry team. However, neither Moore nor Rogan are to be found in the box score, though several other Negro League names are, as well as a rather interesting pitcher. Here it is, from the June 29, 1920, St. Louis Globe-Democrat:

Unless the Ellers were a very progressive family for the 1920s, it would seem that the 25th Infantry played behind a white pitcher that day. (Hod Eller, incidentally, would show up as an umpire for some Negro National League games played in Cincinnati in 1921.) Now, check out the second game of the Monarchs/Giants series, played on July 4 (Globe-Democrat, July 5, 1920):

Three of the Giants’ players—Herring, Stewart, and Johnson—appear in their lineup for the first time that season. And the same three names appeared in the 25th Infantry lineup on June 28. Lastly (for today) here’s Dave Wyatt’s story on Rogan’s first appearance in Chicago on July 5 (Defender, July 10, 1920):

Wyatt corroborates the acquisition by St. Louis of three Army players, one of them “a catcher who is said to be the peer of them all”--all the baseball players recently let out of the Army, that is (at least that’s how I read it). Johnson played first base on July 4 against the Monarchs, but on July 5, with the Monarchs in Chicago, the St. Louis Giants hosted the Cuban Stars, with Johnson behind the plate. What the heck—I’ll post that one, too (Globe-Democrat, July 6, 1920):

After helping beat the Cubans, Johnson promptly disappeared from the St. Louis lineup. Herring and Stewart remain through much of the rest of the season, but as far as I can tell, Johnson is gone. So who was he? Tune in tomorrow.

October 31, 2006

…Wilber “Bullet” Rogan, that is, Kansas City Monarchs Hall of Fame pitcher/outfielder. His early career was spent mostly in the Army, playing at Hawaii’s Schofield Barracks for the 25th Infantry’s famous “Wreckers,” until the 25th was transferred to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, on the Mexican border, during the First World War. When he got out of the Army in late June or early July 1920, J. L. Wilkinson of the Monarchs brought Rogan and his Army teammate Walter “Dobie” Moore back to the Midwest (Rogan grew up in Kansas City, and had briefly pitched for Wilkinson’s All-Nations Club while on furlough in 1917).

Dave Wyatt of the Chicago Defender tells the story of Rogan’s first appearance in Chicago (Defender, July 10, 1920):

“…Manager Wilkinson signed him early last spring; the boy made a three nights’ ride and jumped out with strange support, facing one of the best teams in the country and gave an exhibition of hurling that had 10,000 fans yelping and the American Giants standing on their heads.”

The game was on July 5; Rogan beat the American Giants 4-2 on one hit, striking out 11. Wyatt doesn’t exactly say this was Rogan’s Negro National League debut, but he does strongly imply that he was fresh off a train from the far west (though the reference to an early spring signing is a little confusing; presumably Wilkinson signed him, then had to wait until he was free of his military obligations).

However, I’ve run across a couple of interesting things that tell us a little more about Rogan’s transition from the Army to the Negro Leagues. First, there’s this box score, from the July 4, 1920, St. Louis Globe-Democrat:

This is in fact the first Negro National League game that Dobie Moore (“A. Moore”) and Bullet Rogan (called “Rugout” here) played for the Kansas City Monarchs, two days before the July 5 game in Chicago.

So Rogan and Moore actually started their NNL careers in St. Louis, not Chicago. A small thing, perhaps. But consider this: while working on a long-term project involving Negro League players in the 1920 census, I found Wilber Rogan. But he wasn’t in Arizona, where the 25th Infantry (and several other black units) were still stationed at that time. Instead, he was at the Army’s Jefferson Barracks—in St. Louis. There’s really no doubt this is Bullet Rogan: he’s listed as having been born in Oklahoma, and his age is given as 30, matching Bullet’s accepted age for many years (though he was really, according to Phil Dixon, 26 at this time, having added four years to his age when he joined the Army back in 1911). His census entry gives his rank as private, and his occupation as a “machinist helper.” He is also one of only three black men on the whole post, as far as I could tell.

The census was taken in January—Rogan was counted on January 6, to be precise. It’s possible he was temporarily assigned to Jefferson Barracks, then returned to Arizona, only to rush back to the Midwest in early summer to join the Monarchs. But it’s certainly an interesting coincidence that in January he was assigned to the very same city where he would make his NNL debut in July. Dobie Moore, by the way, was in Arizona in January; “Walter Moore” (24, born in Georgia) can be found in the census at Camp Stephen D. Little, Nogales, Arizona—on the same census page as Branch Russell and William Linder, other 25th Infantry veterans and eventual Monarchs.

Only mildly interesting so far, perhaps (though Rogan’s “three nights’ ride” from the west may not have occurred quite the way Wyatt seems to imply it did). But there’s more to the story, which I’ll pick up tomorrow.

THANKS (11.1.06, 10:13 a.m.) to Phil Dixon for supplying the full name of Camp Stephen D. Little (the census records truncate it to “Camp Stephen”).